A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1)

Winner of the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel

Staff Top Fives 2019

Our favorite books of the year.

Think Le Carré set in space. Mahit Dzmare is a newly arrived ambassador who discovers her predecessor was murdered. Full of intrigue, richly textured world building, and tinged with an elegant sort of sadness, A Memory of Empire is a cracking good read. Arkady Martine is a Byzantine historian and an urban planner and the juxtaposition of those two disciplines mixed with political intrigue makes for mesmerizing reading. Recommended By Mary Jo S., Powells.com

A fascinating space opera debut novel, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure.

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident — or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion — all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret — one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life — or rescue it from annihilation.

"A cutting, beautiful, human adventure about cultural exchange, identity, and intrigue. The best SF novel I've read in the last five years." Yoon Ha Lee, author of the Machineries of Empire trilogy

"Politics and personalities blend with an immersive setting and beautiful prose in a debut that weaves threads of identity, assimilation, technology, and culture to offer an exceedingly well-done sf political thriller." Library Journal (Starred Review)

"A Memory Called Empire perfectly balances action and intrigue with matters of empire and identity. All around brilliant space opera, I absolutely love it." Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice

"In A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine smuggles you into her interstellar diplomatic pouch, and takes you on the most thrilling ride ever. This book has everything I love: identity crises, unlikely romance, complicated politics, and cunning adventurers. Super-fun, and ultra-fascinating." Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky

Arkady Martine is a speculative fiction writer and, as Dr. AnnaLinden Weller, a historian of the Byzantine Empire and a city planner. Under both names, she writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda, and the edges of the world. Arkady grew up in New York City and, after some time in Turkey, Canada, and Sweden, lives in Baltimore with her wife, the author Vivian Shaw. A Memory Called Empire is her debut novel.

Below, our buying team share the spring and summer books that have them feeling good about the state of reading in 2019...

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